THEY say good teams find a way to win when they are not at their best.

And Tempest United side-stepped a potential banana skin at home to Burscough Richmond, beating the Premier Division strugglers 3-1.

The club’s assistant manager, Gary Westhead, says it serves as a handy reminder they need to maintain their high standards throughout the season.

“It was a difficult game on Saturday, Burscough are a tough team and we were scrappy,” he said. “It was a poor performance from us in the first half.

“They scored four minutes in, and Nathan Monson missed an early penalty and you’re just thinking it’s going to be one of those days, like we had at Thornton a few weeks ago.

“But Nathan put the miss behind him and he scored after about 10 minutes, and Jordan Coop scored from a corner just before half time.

“That goal saved them from a rollicking at half time, to be honest, so instead we said they needed to keep their discipline and keep the ball better because we’d not passed it well.

“I think there may have been some complacency in us. And we were miles better in the second half, I don’t think Burscough had a shot.

“We weren’t anywhere near our best but we’ll take the three points.”

Though Tempest were dominant after the break, it took until 10 minutes were left on the clock before Monson’s second of the afternoon killed off Burscough.

And though victorious, Westhead admits he would prefer not to see any traces of slacking off in the team.

Tempest sit fifth after nine games, behind this Saturday’s hosts, Hurst Green, on goal difference alone.

The top three are all two points ahead but, leaders Fulwood Amateurs aside, have played a game more than the Chew Moor side.

And Ross McNair’s right-hand man says the congested nature of the standings show no one can afford to let their standards slip at Premier Division level.

“We’ll just keep plugging away and trying to pick up as many points as we can,” he said.

“You can get turned over any time you’re not right at it and you only have to lose a couple of games and you can easily drop three or four places so we’ll just keep plodding on and seeing if we can stay in touch with the teams above us. We haven’t had many new additions but [central midfielder] Matty Westwell has come in from Charnock Richard, he’s top quality, and Liam Rice, has come back after he initially left at the end of last season.

“We were gutted he was leaving but we’re happy to have him back, he’s very solid at centre-half, so we feel we’ve got a decent squad.

“We’ve got a few good games coming up. Hurst Green on Saturday won’t be easy then we’ve got Daten in the Shield and Turton in the Richardson Cup, so we need to keep at it.

“We’ve started well, Nathan must be on about 10 goals already, so what we really need to do is improve our home form, we only won about five at home in each of the last couple of seasons, so if we get our home games matching up to our away results that’s top-two form.

“We’re happy with where we are at this stage.”

Elsewhere in the Premier Division, Turton were 4-0 winners at home to Vickerstown, thanks to first-half goals from Osman Karacan, Liam Stewart and Kieran Sissons, with Luke Bradbury completing the scoring 12 minutes from time.

But CMB had a day to forget at Slyne With Hest, as they were on the wrong end of a 6-1 hammering, with Ben Thornton’s goal the only highlight for them.

Eagley remain rooted to the bottom of Division One after their 1-0 defeat at home to Lostock St Gerard’s, but there were victories for Stoneclough and Horwich St Mary’s Victoria.

Stoneclough had been pegged back twice at home to Croston Sports Club, and had themselves hit back from 3-2 down to draw level.

Then, with just five minutes remaining, Chris Cancalis hit the game’s seventh goal to send his side up a place to fourth in the table.

Jay Mannion (two) and Lee Fitzsimmons were Stoneclough’s other scorers.

They travel to Eagley this Saturday.

Horwich had a far more straightforward victory, seeing off Milnthorpe Corinthians 6-0.

Sam Parkinson hit the first two goals with Scott Adamson also bagging a brace. Tim Raines made it five and Jordan Wroth completed a fine victory for Horwich, who are two points behind leaders Lostock St Gerard’s, with a game in hand.

Bolton County surrendered top spot in the Manchester League Premier Division, with their 3-1 loss at Springhead seeing them leapfrogged.

Atherton Town also suffered a 3-1 defeat in Division One, to visitors Tintwistle Athletic.

A bad day for local teams in Division Three saw Breightmet United beaten 8-0 by Avro Reserves and Astley and Tyldesley lose 5-2 at Hindley Juniors.

Bolton United may have also lost but they played their part in a 7-5 defeat at Hindsford Reserves, who saw their hat-trick scorer, Brad Brown, dismissed for a second yellow card.

Bolton Wyresdale lead the way in the Lancashire Amateur League Premier Division.

Their 2-1 win at Failsworth Dynamos meant they overtook Burnley Belvedere – defeated 5-0 by Old Mancunians – in pole position on goal difference.

Ryan Smith and Kyle Bailey were the goalscorers for Wyresdale, who ran away with the Division One title last season.

Thornleigh collected their first point of the league season, with a 2-2 draw at home to Whitworth Valley, while Little Lever were also involved in a home draw, 4-4 against Rochdale St Clement’s.

In Division One, Blackrod Town and Horwich RMI each shipped four goals in their defeats, Blackrod beaten 4-2 by Failsworth’s reserves and RMI losing 4-0 at Radcliffe Town.